Blackouts turn off life in Gaza

February 10, 2010

Gaza – Ma'an –

As Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the Gaza Power Authority, the EU and international donors point fingers over the failure to provide adequate fuel for electricity generation in the Strip, the lives of residents again turned upside down as they faced life without power.

"The blackouts cause a lot of trouble for merchants, factories, families and students, my wife has to work overnight sometimes when the electricity comes on to make food for the family," Abu Khalil, who works in a Gaza shop said.

"I leave home at 7am and return at evening and find no power, our lives are conducted in the dark,” he said.

Abu Khalil said he was worried about buying a generator, after two fires erupted in the last month from faulty models, and a third - improperly stored inside a home - resulted in the death of three children from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Press photographer Yousuf Deeb said that he often stays up into the odd hours of the night to e-mail photos to foreign press agencies and edit his work. He said he has to wait until the power comes on to file his work, often delaying deadlines for hours and jeopardizing a story.

Hala Iskaik is a university student, who said finding time to get work done while it was still light out was next to impossible with the short winter days lasting less than 11 hours. She said she worries even more about her brothers, both of whom are studying for the Tawjihi, the university entrance exam. Students regularly study 12 hours a day for the tests, and Hala said there were no candles in the house to help them when the lights went out.

Deputy chief of the Gaza Power Authority Kana’an Ubaid said that on top of the irregular fuel deliveries a technical problem at the plant caused it to shut off four hours overnight on Tuesday, blacking out most of Gaza city and much of the central Strip.

He said there was little the Palestinian Authority could do to fix the situation, noting a reliance on industrial fuel from donors and the PA as well as the goodwill of Israeli crossings officials to allow it into the Strip. Technical issues were not likely to be permanently solved either, he noted, as the authority continued to wait for thousands of replacement parts and upgrade equipment blocked by Israel from entering the Gaza Strip (which continues to be under Israeli brutal siege since 2006).